That's What You Get
by Olivesandsuch
Summary: Max Toma goes on adventures. That's what he does. He's been all over the US and out of it a few times and he's only 14. He hears about the strange town of Gravity Falls and immediately decides that it's his next stop. He gets in a little over his head.


Max jumped off of the bus step, and teetered, almost falling over from the weight of his backpack. He brushed his dark brown hair out of his eyes and glanced up at the sign in front of him as the noisy bus pulled away. Gravity Falls. It was supposedly a quiet town, but he had heard that strange things happened there, which was exactly what he was hoping for, the last town he was in, Santa Barbara in California, was pretty quiet and kind of boring.

He walked into the town, looking all around, trying to memorize every store, every diner, every little shop. Max loved going new places, it was how he lived. Going place to place, seeing new things. Big cities, small towns, normal or strange, he loved it all. The town smelled like the forest that surrounded it. He wanted to explore the woods that encircled the town, but he had to find a hotel room first, somewhere to drop his stuff off. He didn't want to run into trouble and have to run away with a 30 pound backpack. In the past he had trouble finding hotels he could stay at due to being only 14, but he hoped that they might overlook it here.

There was a small motel just off of Main Street that he decided to try. It was a little run down, like everything else in the town, and the OPEN sign flickered. Max walked into the front office, which smelled of dust and cleaning supplies, and rang the little bell. An older woman in a horrendous green dress came to the desk and smiled at him.

"Can I help you?" She asked kindly.

"Yes, I'd like to get a motel room?" Max asked hopefully.

"Oh, I'm sorry dear, you have to be 18 or older to get a room. If you come back with one of your parents I can help you." She said apologetically.

"Thank you anyways." Max smiled and left. Now he was going to do what he always did. Barter, beg, or pay for a place to stay.

He walked out of the main town and into the outskirts of the forest, enjoying the quiet. It also gave him time to think about what to do. Max could always live in the forest if he needed to. He'd done that before, but he'd rather not. Sleeping on the ground was uncomfortable and he would like to have more privacy than what the forest had to offer. He glanced up and saw a sign for "The Mystery Shack" with several question marks after it. Max laughed to himself, it looked like the writer of the sign had been confused about what they were writing about. Since he had nothing better to do, Max followed where the sign was pointing, down a trail to a house that seemed to be falling apart. The paint was peeling and the S in Shack on the sign had fallen down.

Even though it didn't seem structurally sound, he still walked inside. He found himself in a gift shop, surrounded by tacky crap that tourists would buy for double the price that the things were worth. Snow globes, hats, posters, t-shirts that read "I went to the Mystery Shack and all I got was this shirt" and miniature versions of some of the attractions. There was only two other people in there. A woman looking through the t-shirts, obviously a tourist, and an old man trying to clean something sticky up with a mop.

The man sighed in annoyance and looked around for someone. When he didn't see who he was looking for he yelled into the next room "Kids, Soos, Wendy. Will one of you come in and clean this up?" When there was no response he frowned and muttered something about paying them for nothing. This was Max's chance.

He walked up to the man, straightened his shoulders, and used his best grown-up voice. "If you need another employee I'd be happy to work here. I'm hard working and won't slack off."

The old man seemed surprised, then thought about the offer. "I like you kid, you've got guts, but I'm also not made of money."

"You don't need to pay me in money. I need somewhere to stay for a while, if you could give me housing I'd work for you." Max replied. This was always a little risky, but he trusted his instincts, and the man seemed fine.

"I do have an extra room. Hmm," The man thought about it. "Okay kid, you're hired. But the second you slack off you're out. My names Stan Pines, nice to meet you."

Max almost pumped his fist but instead shook Stan's hand. "Max Toma, I can start working now."

Stan shoved the mop at Max. "Start with cleaning this up, I'll get the key to your room."

"Thank you." Max started scrubbing at the stickiness, smiling to himself. This was going to work out perfectly.

 **AN: I hope you enjoy. Feel free to let me know how I could do better, I'm always trying to get better at writing. Thanks.**


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